Rich Sbardella wrote:
> Does anyone have an easy contra with “star thru” in it?
Dick Leger called this one at the NEFFA Workshop in 1969. (Historical trivia: In those days the only Sunday programming at the NEFFA Festival was an afternoon workshop with one folk dance teacher and one square/contra caller. It was for
members only, but you could become a member at the door for $1. The practice dated from a time when “blue laws” were still in force and Sunday events couldn’t be open to the public.)
ON TO PITTSFIELD (Herbie Gaudreau, around 1960)
Contra, duple improper, double progression
A.1 Face neighbor, take closed (waltz) position
Footwork (lady start R foot, gent L foot):
Heel, toe, step-close-step away from center
Repeat toward center
Repeat away from & toward center
Call:
“Heel, toe, out you go, heel, toe, in you go;
Heel, toe, out you go, same people dos-a-dos”
A.2 Dos-a-dos same neighbor
Walk by, swing next neighbor
B.1 Ladies chain over & back
B.2 Right & left thru
Star thru, pass thru
(More trivia: Herbie Gaudreau, best known for Becket Reel, was a 1950s/60s MWSD caller who loved contras and wrote many for his SD club. Most were completely symmetrical; he was quite likely the first to write such contras, well before
the trad-revival crowd. I suspect the earliest trad callers to write symmetrical dances were influenced by Herbie; I know I was when I wrote Shadrack’s Delight in 1972 and Inflation Reel in 1973.)
Tony Parkes
Billerica, Mass.
New book! Square Dance Calling: An Old Art for a New Century
(to be published real soon)